SPRINGFIELD - An unusual spate of dwelling fires this month is taxing area chapters of the American Red Cross.

"It's atypical to have this many fires," Richard A. Lee said, executive director of the Red Cross' Pioneer Valley Chapter.

Last month marked the start of the American Red Cross's fiscal year and local disaster relief funds, especially for the Springfield and Westfield chapters, are melting faster than a snowball in July, Red Cross officials said.

"This is the last day of July we have already had several fires and they have been expensive ones," Richard A. Rubin, executive director of the Greater Westfield Chapter of the American Red Cross. "We have 11 months to go."

Red Cross officials, meanwhile, are fearful that the approaching winter fire season will be busier than usual as more people move towards alternative - and sometimes riskier - methods of heating their homes.

"I am really starting to get very very nervous as I am watching the fuel prices," Mary E. Snyders, interim executive director of the Hampshire-Franklin chapter said.

The Pioneer Valley Chapter put out a call for help earlier this month after it responded to three fires within a span of five days.

One of the fires, which displaced 36 tenants from a Locus Street apartment, cost the chapter some $15,000 in emergency relief funds. That's a significant chunk of change given that the chapter budgets just $100,000 a year for emergency relief.

That call for help was answered by a number of people who made donations, large and small, that amounted to about $6,000, Lee said.

One such donation was made by Lawrence C. and Cynthia P. Starr of Longmeadow.

"We send money to the chapter every year but this year we decided we needed to do something a little extra," Lawrence Starr said.

Starr said he and his wife have a long history of involvement with the American Red Cross, starting back in the 1970s when they worked as Red Cross first aid instructors in New York state.

Even with the donations, however, the Pioneer Valley chapter is some $12,000 over budget for July, Lee said.

Rubin said the situation at his chapter is not quite as dire. "But, if this continues at the rate it is going we are going to have some precarious situations," Rubin said.

Snyders said she is still trying to catch up from the last fiscal year when her chapter spent about $16,000 for local disaster relief. The chapter typically budgets $8,000 each year and rarely exceeds that amount, she said.